Informal Communication
I lived in the house at 84 Lookout Road from 1959 until 1974? I can’t remember when my folks moved out because I was gone by then. We bought the house from the Duckworth’s in 1959 for the amazing sum of $19,000! There are actually some great old photos of this house at the library achives.
The history as it was told to me is as follows: The whole block from the corner of Briarcliff and Lookout up to the corner of Condit? (it turns into crestview) and Lookout were one complex at one time. The small home on the corner of BC and LO roads (the old civil defense building) was originally the music room to the 84 Lookout house. The upstairs when you entered, presented with a grand piano and there was seating for about twenty guests. My house, at 84 was the guest house to the main house at 98 Lookout. The small home between 84 and 98 was originally the carriage house to 84. When we moved in in ’59 the stables were still intact on the first floor. The side of the house facing 84 were huge barn doors which allowed storage of both carriage and horses indoors. The upstairs were the drivers quarters. A large building was in back of the stables and it was a place where most of the high school partied in the ’60’s. The little house just beyond 98 was the carriage house and stables to that house.
When we moved there the owners were the Horns, an elderly couple who were partners in the Horn and Hardart Automat,, the original fast food in NYC. If you are old enough you will remember it. The food was behind little glass windows and you selected what you wanted and then paid for it and pulled it out of the window! Always on our to do list when we went to the City.
Last October I was in the Lakes for our 30th high school reunion and visited the homes. They are still magnificent. The earliest use of that complex was intended for a sanitarium by a man named Grigsby. You can still see his name on the pillars at the corner of Briarcliff and Laurel hill.
Best to All,
Dr. Robert Sainz